• It is expected that BBI will come up with a report that will rival the Punguza Mizigo Bill of Ekuru Aukot’s Thirdway Alliance.
• The 12-member team gazetted in May last year has been on nationwide tours traversing all the 47 counties to collect opinions on main challenges facing the country.
Image: DOUGLAS OKIDDY
The much-anticipated report by the Building Bridges Initiative popularly known as the Handshake team is likely to be out earlier than expected.
The team, after concluding public participation in all the 47 counties on August 9, has retreated to write a report that will be handed to President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Vice chair Adams Oloo confirmed that they are already on a retreat but without stating their location and indicated that they will have completed their work before the October 23 deadline.
“We have until October. We shall definitely be done by then and possibly even earlier,” Oloo stated.
Kenyans are eagerly waiting to see the recommendations of the report which are expected to touch on policy, legislative and constitutional changes as well as institutions necessary to address nine challenges ailing the country.
It is expected that BBI will come up with a report that will rival the Punguza Mizigo Bill of Ekuru Aukot’s Thirdway Alliance and convince Kenyans their recommendations are far much better.
Punguza Mizigo Bill, which is now before the county assemblies for debate, has won the hearts of ordinary Kenyans for proposing, among other things, a reduction in the economic burden.
It has nonetheless been dismissed by those who are supporting the BBI.
The argument has been that Aukot did not undertake intensive public participation as the Senator Yusuf Haji-led team.
The 12-member team gazetted in May last year has been on nationwide tours traversing all the 47 counties to collect opinions on main challenges facing the country, among them election violence.
Reports said the BBI team hired eight experts to help with the finalisation of its report, among them historians and constitutional lawyers.
During public participation, expanding the executive to accommodate election losers emerged as a hot topic.
Those calling for the creation of more positions at the top argued it was the way out of violence which is experienced every election cycle.
Women leaders under Embrace Team proposed an expanded executive which comprises of a President, Prime Minister and two deputies and formation of regional Assemblies where Members of County Assembly from the same region seat and legislate from regional assemblies as opposed to wards.
Former Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, an insider in Uhuru's administration, also called for the reintroduction of the Office of Prime Minister.
Muthaura argued that an expanded executive would guarantee “an all-inclusive government” and be a solution to the country’s ethnic divisions.
ODM, on the other hand, wants an arrangement where the Prime Minister exercises full executive authority, with the President as a ceremonial Head-of-State.
On his part, Jubilee Secretary General Raphael indicated that Kenya has the best opportunity now to amend the Constitution to abolish the presidential system.
Deputy President William Ruto indicated that he would oppose the BBI report should it propose an expanded executive. His argument is that Kenyans should not go to a referendum to create positions for certain people.
He explains that if the Constitution is changed with a few individuals in mind, another group would want to change the document some other day.
It is now to be seen what the task force will recommend and how the report will be received by leaders and ordinary Kenyans alike.
The task force was formed on March 9, 2018, after the handshake between Uhuru and Raila that ended political hostility.